More Important Than Ever

If one had to list the factor most important to a company's productivity, what would it be? Popular guesses might be technology, workforce education, and visionary leadership (e.g., Steve Jobs, Elon Musk). The answer is surprising: [bold added]

Graphic from projectmanager.com

The results confirmed something Gallup had seen before: a company’s productivity depends, to a high degree, on the quality of its managers.

What no one saw coming, however, was the sheer size of that correlation—something Gallup calls “the single most profound, distinct and clarifying finding” in its 80-year history. The study showed that managers didn’t just influence the results their teams achieved, they explained a full 70% of the variance. In other words, if it’s a superior team you’re after, hiring the right manager is nearly three-fourths of the battle.

No other single factor, from compensation levels to the perception of senior leadership, even came close. “That blew me out of my chair,” says Jim Clifton, Gallup’s chief executive.

Anyone who's had a job has had a boss and has thought or said out loud "if I was in charge I'd do things differently." Upon promotion, one finds that supervision of others is a lot harder than it looks. Above all, it requires sublimation of the self--doing what's best for the organization (which means sometimes being the bad guy to the workers) and doing what's best for the employees (training them and being willing to let the best ones move on).

Good management includes near-religious attention to communication upwards and downwards and reviewing others' work before doing what the manager may enjoy (research, writing computer programs, attending conventions (!))

After decades of eliminating organizational layers, the managers that remain are more important than ever.